In the spring of 1961, shortly after a young David Cornwell had completed his induction into MI6, he learned some sensational news. George Blake, veteran of the British secret service, had confessed to being a double agent. In the course of a decade of treachery, Blake had betrayed dozens, perhaps hundreds, of intelligence officers.
One of the many surprises in Paddy Ashdown’s fascinating and fast-moving account of the wartime Resistance in the Bordeaux area is its highly improbable hero. A tiny, unprepossessing figure, frail-looking and only five foot four, Roger Landes was born and brought up in Paris. His parents, who were Jewish, moved to Stamford Hill in 1934. […]
On 2 August 1943 a twin-engined Curtiss C-46 Commando aircraft of the United States Army Air Force Air Transport Command took off from Chabua in northeast India for a flight across the ‘Hump’ to Kunming in China. The twenty-one American personnel on board, en route to postings with Chiang Kai-shek in China, can hardly have […]
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Knowledge of Sufism increased markedly with the publication in 1964 of The Sufis, by Idries Shah. Nowadays his writings, much like his father’s, are dismissed for their Orientalism and inaccuracy.
@fitzmorrissey investigates who the Shahs really were.
Fitzroy Morrissey - Sufism Goes West
Fitzroy Morrissey: Sufism Goes West - Empire’s Son, Empire’s Orphan: The Fantastical Lives of Ikbal and Idries Shah by Nile Green
literaryreview.co.uk
Rats have plagued cities for centuries. But in Baltimore, researchers alighted on one surprising solution to the problem of rat infestation: more rats.
@WillWiles looks at what lessons can be learned from rat ecosystems – for both rats and humans.
Will Wiles - Puss Gets the Boot
Will Wiles: Puss Gets the Boot - Rat City: Overcrowding and Urban Derangement in the Rodent Universes of John B ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Twisters features destructive tempests and blockbuster action sequences.
@JonathanRomney asks what the real danger is in Lee Isaac Chung's disaster movie.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/eyes-of-the-storm